Episode 127: On Saturday Night Live with head writers Alison Gates, Streeter Seidell and Kent Sublette

Saturday Night Live head writers Alison Gates, Streeter Seidell and Kent Sublette join Greg Iwinski to talk about the process of writing for a different host every week, how giving notes to writers differs from giving notes to the cast, what writing for SNL teaches you about rejection, and much more. Alison Gates, Streeter Seidell and Kent Sublette are the current head writers of Saturday Night Live. Kent has been a head writer for the show since 2016, and Alison and Streeter have been head writers since 2022. Greg Iwinski is an Emmy-winning comedy writer whose credits include Last Week Tonight, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Game Theory with Bomani Jones. --- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: wgaeast.org/onwriting Follow the Guild on social media: @WGAEast OnWriting is a production of the Writers Guild of America East. The show is produced by WGA East staff members Jason Gordon, Tiana Timmerberg, and Molly Beer. Production, editing, and mix by Giulia Hjort. Original music is by Taylor Bradshaw. Artwork is designed by Molly Beer.

Three intrepid Writers Guild of America East member Captains – Sarah Montana, Devin Delliquanti and Suzanne Weber – kick off the summer season of the WGAE's OnWriting podcast with a roundtable discussion of our Film and Television Captains Network: what a Captain is, how Captains further the Guild’s ability to provide effective union representation for each and every member, the all-important WGA Captain hat and more.   The WGAE Captains Network is a group of dedicated and engaged WGAE members in the Guild’s Film/TV/Streaming sector who connect other members in their workplace and networks to the union. They work to build community for members and to facilitate communication between their teams and union leadership and staff. Sarah Montana is a screenwriter who primarily writes romcoms, often involving a Santa or Christmas theme, for networks like Hallmark Channel, and is also a member of the WGAE Council. Devin Delliquanti is a writer who currently works at The Daily Show, and has written recently on the Grammy Awards and multiple Jordan Klepper specials. Suzanne Weber is a television writer and developer who was previously on the writing staff for Disney's Andi Mack and for the ill-fated Lizzie McGuire reboot, and is also a member of the WGAE Council. --- Before it was a podcast, OnWriting was a print publication. Check out OnWriting: The Print Archives. Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

Three Daytime Drama writers whose shows were contenders the 2025 Writers Guild Awards join us to discuss their work, how they became daytime drama writers, how the daytime format helps you avoid procrastinating, some favorite plotlines, and much more. Kate Hall is a daytime drama writer whose credits include Days of Our Lives, All My Children, General Hospital, and Young and the Restless. She was nominated for the 2025 Daytime Drama Writers Guild Award for General Hospital. Ron Carlivati is a daytime drama writer who has served as head writer for One Life to Live, General Hospital and Days of Our Lives, and as a staff writer on the new show Beyond the Gates. He was nominated for the 2025 Daytime Drama Writers Guild Award for Days of Our Lives. Charlotte Gibson-Bauer is a daytime drama writer who has worked as a scriptwriter on All My Children and General Hospital, and as a breakdown writer on As the World Turns, Guiding Light and Days of Our Lives. She was nominated for the 2025 Daytime Drama Writers Guild Award for General Hospital. --- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast  

Lynn Nottage is joined by Soo Hugh for a conversation about approaches to adaptation for the screen, improving work-life balance by recentering collaboration, building the writers room for a show that spans several languages, countries, and times, and much more.  Soo Hugh is a writer, showrunner and producer who cut her screenwriting teeth as a staff writer on shows like the AMC crime drama The Killing, the CBS sci-fi series Under the Dome. She then went on to serve as creator and showrunner for ABC’s 2015 sci-fi series The Whispers and as the co-showrunner for the first season of the AMC supernatural anthology The Terror. She is currently the showrunner, writer, executive producer, and visionary behind the drama series Pachinko, based on the international bestselling novel of the same name by Min Jin Lee. Told in three languages – Korean, Japanese, and English – Pachinko follows the hopes and dreams of four generations of a Korean immigrant family as they leave their homeland in an indomitable quest to survive and thrive.  Season 1 received the Peabody Entertainment Award, a Critics Choice Television Award for best foreign language series, an Independent Spirit Award for best ensemble cast in a scripted series, a Gotham Award for Breakthrough Series, and was notably elected as one of AFI's TV programs of the year. The series debuted on Apple TV+ in March 2022, and the highly anticipated season two premiered globally last summer. This episode is moderated by Lynn Nottage. Lynn is a screenwriter, playwright and installation artist. She is the first, and remains the only, woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice – for her plays Sweat and Ruined. As a screenwriter she was a writer and producer on the Netflix series She's Gotta Have It and a consulting producer on the third season of the Apple TV+ series Dickinson. --- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast  

The five contenders for Digital News at the 2025 Writers Guild Awards sit down for a roundtable discussion of their nominated pieces, their writing processes, facing challenges and finding silver linings in the media industry, pre-publication nerves, and much more. The Digital News nominees at the 2025 Writers Guild Awards were Henry Grabar for "Mise-en-Seine: A Paris Olympics Diary" (Slate), Akbar Shahid Ahmed for "What Is Hamas Thinking Now?" for (HuffPost), Molly Olmstead for "Sent by God" for (Slate), Jim Newell for "The Unraveling of Nancy Mace" (Slate), and Jaya Saxena for "The Food That Makes You Gay" (Eater). --- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

A special episode featuring a panel of 2025 Writers Guild Award nominees from the original and adapted screenplay categories. Moderator Kathryn VanArendonk, TV critic at Vulture and New York Magazine, moderates a conversation between Justin Kuritzkes, Joslyn Barnes, Ramell Ross, and Dana Fox to talk about their critically and culturally acclaimed screenplays. Justin Kuritzkes is the writer of Challengers. Joslyn Barnes and Ramell Ross are the co-writers of Nickel Boys. Dana Fox is a co-writer and executive producer of Wicked. This episode is a live taping of our annual Writers Guild Awards contenders panel, And the Nominees Are..., which took place at the SVA Theatre on January 30, 2025. --- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast  

Screenwriters Peter Straughan (Conclave) and Zack Baylin (The Order) discuss their latest projects and previous work, their process, and much more. Peter Straughan is a writer and playwright. His most recent screenplay is the 2024 film Conclave. Before Conclave, Peter's screenwriting credits have include The Goldfinch, Our Brand is Crisis, Frank and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the latter of which received several accolades including a 2011 Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. In addition, he wrote the 2015 television adaptation of Wolf Hall, which earned him a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special. Zach Baylin is a writer whose 2024 credits include The Order and Bob Marley: One Love. His other credits include Gran Turismo, Creed III and King Richard, the last of which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. --- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast  

Writers and showrunners Julio Torres and Jeff Schaffer discuss their work on some of TV's most acclaimed comedy series. Julio Torres is a writer and comedian who wrote for Saturday Night Live and the HBO comedy series Los Espookys, the latter which he co-created alongside Ana Fabrega and Fred Armisen. He then went on to write and direct the 2023 surrealist dramedy film Problemista. After Problemista, he created, wrote, and starred in the critically acclaimed surrealist comedy series Fantasmas, which premiered in June 2024 on HBO. Jeff Schaffer is a film and television writer and director known for cowriting cult-classic features like Eurotrip and Bruno and for his work on acclaimed television series like Seinfeld, The League and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He served as showrunner for Curb Your Enthusiasm from 2009 until the end of its twelfth and final season, which concluded in April 2024. --- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

Host Anya Epstein is joined by Laura Eason to discuss gaining confidence as a first-time showrunner, the art of adaptation and collaboration, hiring diverse writers to give life to diverse characters, navigating delicate topics with the nuance that they require and much more. Laura Eason is a screenwriter, showrunner, executive producer and playwright. She began her television writing career as a staff writer for four seasons of House of Cards, for which she received both an Emmy nomination for Drama Series and a Writers Guild Award nomination for Writing in a Drama Series. After House of Cards, she went on to serve as co-Executive Producer and writer for the 2019 miniseries The Loudest Voice in the Room. Laura is currently the showrunner, executive producer and writer of Three Women. The Starz limited series, which is based on Lisa Taddeo's 2019 book of the same name, is intimate and haunting portrayal of female desire that finds three – or really, four – women on a crash course to radically overturn their lives. Three Women premiered in the US in September 2024, and is available to watch on Starz. This episode is hosted by Anya Epstein. Anya is a TV writer and producer, and the co-showrunner of series like The Affair and In Treatment. --- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast

Host Greg Iwinski sits down with Gabe Sherman to talk about Gabe’s path from New York real estate journalist, to writing a book about Roger Ailes, to writing a movie about one of the most famous people on earth: Donald Trump. Gabe Sherman is a journalist, author and screenwriter known for writing The Loudest Voice in the Room, the 2014 bestselling biography of Fox News president Roger Ailes. As a journalist his work has appeared in publications like The New York Times, The New Republic, The New York Observer and GQ. He previously served as national affairs editor at New York magazine and is currently a special correspondent for Vanity Fair and a regular contributor to NBC News and MSNBC.  Most recently, Gabe wrote the screenplay for The Apprentice, the 2024 feature that follows Donald Trump's career as a real estate businessman in New York in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as his relationship with lawyer Roy Cohn. The Apprentice was released in the US on October 11, 2024 and is now playing in theaters. This episode of OnWriting is hosted by Greg Iwinski. Greg is an Emmy-winning comedy writer and no-award-winning performer whose writing includes LAST WEEK TONIGHT and THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT. He recently finished writing the first season of GAME THEORY WITH BOMANI JONES on HBO, and can be found on Twitter @garyjackson. --- Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast